The freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1886-18??, 1887-12-14
LOCAL OPTION.
By George r. Scott.


license, and the reason is that go
far as it goes it is right. The OBJ
faction to it is, that it does not go
far enough.
To show how weak it is look at
Atlanta, Georgia. Two years ago,
With great expense and hard work,
local option was carried by q small
majority, this year it is defeated by
little over one thousand votes.
The principle is just as good as it
was two years ago; the trouble is
that the enemy had more of the
nsinews of war" this time to COM
mand the votes of the depraved
and ignorant.
Local option demands unceas-
ing vigilance and the expenditure
of large sums of money to carry on
discussions and meet the expenses
of repeated campaigns. The liquor
dealers will always pan out liber-
allv, because it means either life or
death to their business. What sums
the temperance people raise have
to be met by voluntary contribu-
tions; and, as class, they are COM
posed of those citizens who have
all they can do to make both ends
meet. Besides, they will not spend
money in bribing voters even if
they had it.
Between license and high.
license, do not care which pre-
walls. They are both wrong in
principle, and being wrong ought
to be rejected.
Local option, at best, is only a
little wee bit of right, and is sub
ject to many objections. Here is
one man gave me: 81 hope To-
cal option will not be carried in
(naming the town., because, if it
is, all the drunkards and buns of
that town will 'ill-up' in our city,
and we will hardly be able to live
in it," In plain words, local option
may be blessing to one town but
curse to its near neighbor.
When you are looking tor rem
edy it should be one that would
cure the disease, and not the kind
that will only shift it from one
part of the body to another.
The only way to get rid of the
effects of the saloons Is to annihi-
late them throughout the whole
country. You say that is a big job.
That's fact; but it's good Bible
doctrine and will eventually pre-
vail.
l believe local option is desira-
BILE, and wherever it gains foot it
is just 80 much space conquered
for right for at least a time.
But after all, the people must be
educated up to National Prohibi-
ton, and there must be somebody
held responsible for the enforce
ment of the principle. Orphans,
without any guardians, do as they
please, and therefore the different
States have provided for their
bringing up. That's good policy
Aoi WIG cdhO vi VIC WolidIo vi tuc
people. The drink. curse can never
be put down while legalized saloons
exist In towns, cities, counties
and states of the Nation. Abraham
Lincoln once said that the country
could not exist half free and half
slave. One system or the other
was bound to govern and control.
This country cannot be land of
temperance with half its people
under local option and the other
halt under either high or low Ii
cense.
Non-partisan measures are good
80 long as the within of the party or
the parties is in the right direction.
Ii 1t pays to enforce local option,
all right; if not, the other thing
This Is too loose a thing to fight
such a gigantic evil with.
Men and women can't be fight
Ing the same battle over and over
twenty-four hours in the day and
three hundred and sixty-fve days
IN the year. 1t is asking too much
for them, when more can be accom-.
pllshed by one days work at the
oallot-box for Prohibition and q
party to enforce it-provided the
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